Vince Vaughn has produced a documentary about the art murals of Northern Ireland that depict the region’s sectarian conflict. Directed by Vaughn’s sister, Valeri, and co-produced by Dan Lebental, “Art of Conflict: The Murals of Northern Ireland” premieres today on Netflix.

The film was inspired by a trip Vaughn took to Northern Ireland about a decade ago. “We went to Belfast and I was staying at a hotel and they said, have you seen the murals? I didn’t even know that these existed.” He and his friend took a black cab to explore the murals as tourists, and he was shocked by what he saw.

“I was fascinated that out of this obviously very difficult conflict, this interesting and expressive art form came,” he said. “Here are two people living divided by walls that continued to be built up, that never met each other, didn’t want to talk to each other. You had years and years of conflict and mistrust that were both expressing themselves to their own communities in a similar art form.”

The film, narrated by Vaughn, includes interviews with both Protestant and Catholic muralists, as well as political and community leaders on both sides of the conflict. While there are historical references provided for individual murals, the documentary doesn’t set out to chronicle the history of the conflict, but rather to focus on the art form that emerged out of it.

Vaughn and his sister spent seven years making “Art of Conflict,” which has played at film festivals in the U.S. The actor-producer talked with Speakeasy about the Netflix documentary.

Was there ever any danger in filming the murals?

We had a couple experiences when the film crews would go around and it would start to get dark and certain neighborhoods would let you know they didn’t want you there by firecrackers. Just letting you know you weren’t welcome. I think if you’re an outsider, I found that both sides were more okay with you. It’s really with each other that they have an extreme problem with. I think on the Protestant side, if you’re going in for interviews, they feel that they have not been represented or expressed fairly. So they were more hesitant to deal with media or film people. Mark Ervine was a guy that we met who I had a ton of admiration for and he was actually an ex-paramilitary member, Protestant, who ultimately had a goal of trying to get rid of sectarianism and try to bring both sides together. In the film, I think you see that he’s a guy that both sides have a tremendous amount of respect for. He was very helpful to us. When the movie was over a lot of muralists said they were pleased with how they were represented and that it was the first time it was fair and balanced, that they were able to get their opinions across without it feeling twisted for whatever the filmmaker’s point-of-view was.

Ultimately you wanted to focus on the art, not so much the politics.

Our point-of-view on it was, in seeing the murals, it was done for messaging to the community but it still remains that they are very interesting pieces of art as well. So it became interesting to document that, how did these come about? What purposes did they serve? How did they seem? In doing so you had to learn what they sprung out of, which was this conflict. So for us it was really important that both sides knew we were really looking to hear the muralists’ and communities’ point-of-view about what that mural meant to them. Let’s hear it from the people that are there, what they’re expressing with these murals.

It seems like you had to be careful about providing context, because some of the murals are messages for violence.

There was a debate which we show in the film. We have the gentleman who is a historian on the murals saying there’s a debate going on – Is it art or is it propaganda? He felt that they were both. The murals would be used to sway a particular community into a way of thinking, and also, some of the murals have a quality of artistic value to them as well. Blues music was originally a way for people to communicate. I feel like the first point of the murals was to communicate to communities, either rallying cries or intimidating people, but the first purpose wasn’t to draw a pretty picture.

When you’re standing in front of one of these murals, what do you experience and see?

It’s overwhelming when I first went there. It would be as if you’re standing in a neighborhood and the majority of these buildings are painted with this messaging. So it’s not a piece of art that would hang in a museum. It’s meant to remind you of an event important to them or to tell people to get out, or to remember someone in the community, or to express sentiment about something. It’s living within the community. It actually is part of the community. So it can be overwhelming. There’s one thing when there’s graffiti on a wall, but these really had political and community messaging that was really entrenched and part of the fabric of the neighborhood.

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